1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that is used in such a manner as to be connected to both of a LAN (local area network) and a WAN (wide area network) such as the Internet. The present invention also relates to a printing system having the above configured printing apparatus and to a printing method for the above configured printing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a printing system, as disclosed in JP-A-2002-014780 (particularly on page 6 and FIG. 1), having the following configuration. The conventional printing system is configured such that, when a printing apparatus receives a print request from a portable terminal, the printing apparatus communicates the print request to a server on the Internet. The printing apparatus then receives data sent from the server in response, and performs printing. In the above-configured conventional printing system, prior to the printing, the portable terminal directly acquires content information as a printing subject via a communication channel.
However, in the above-described conventional printing system, different communication methods are used in performing printing in response to a print request from the portable terminal and in causing content information for printing to be displayed on the screen of the portable terminal. In addition, accessing the Internet via the same route is not possible in the conventional printing system.
Further, in the above-described conventional printing system, a plurality of LAN terminals such as portable terminals and personal computers are not connected to the printing apparatus. Even if assumed that a plurality of LAN terminals are connected to the printing apparatus, the printing apparatus cannot handle the requests, such as printing requests, from the respective LAN terminals individually.